Gangrel
The Gangrel are one of the clans of vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade. Known as the Clan of the Beast, the Gangrel represent the vampire as an avatar of the Beast Within, as they come to physically reflect the ravages of the Beast over time. The Gangrel have a reputation for feral, animalistic behavior, and are often seen as savages or rustic outlanders by their more urbane or "civilized" Kindred. History The Gangrel, more than any clan, pass down their history through oral tradition, so much of their earliest history is speculation. According to some accounts, the Antediluvian founder of the Gangrel, a woman named Ennoia, was a daughter of the first two humans, Lilith and Adam. Lilith left Ennoia to be raised by wolves, and Ennoia only entered into human society after Enoch had become ruler of the First City. There, she was Embraced by a member of the Second Generation (perhaps Enoch himself). Another account suggests that Ennoia and the Ravnos Antediluvian were siblings (or possibly lovers) who jointly ruled over their tribe in the east, only to turn on each other after their respective Embraces. The history of the Gangrel in and after the Second City is vague, although they are thought to have been the first vampires to travel to the British Isles and Scandanavia, where they typically ruled alone. The Gangrel remained out of the Empire's affairs for the most part, although they joined with the clans who rallied with the Roman Ventrue against the corrupt Brujah and Baali of Carthage. After the Roman Empire began expanding into Gangrel territory, many of them took a hostile stance towards the Empire and the clans who expanded their domains with it. By the time of the Dark Medieval era, the Gangrel had been relegated to the fringes of Cainite territory in most of Europe, although they still held power in large parts of Britain, Scandanavia, and Transylvania. During the rise of the Tremere, those blood magicians began creating servitors called Gargoyles from the bodies of Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Tzimisce to assist them in the ongoing Omen War against the Tzimisce voivodes. Once the three affected clans learned of this, they formed an alliance of necessity against the Tremere that would not end until the Omen War had wound down and the Anarch Revolt had begun. In response to the tumult of the anarchs' attacks and the march of the Inquisition, the Gangrel allied with the Founders in support of the Camarilla. The Gangrel would become part of the backbone of that sect in its conflicts with the Sabbat in Europe and the New World. However, no small number of Gangrel allied with the anarchs and, later, the Sabbat, and formed the two bloodlines of the Gangrel antitribu within the Sabbat. In the modern nights, the Gangrel often served in the periphery of the Camarilla, but made up a large portion of its front-line fighters in the Jyhad against the Sabbat. However, in 1999, a Gangrel war party led by the clan's Justicar, Xaviar, encountered an immensely powerful being that Xaviar believed to be an Antediluvian. Most of the Gangrel present were killed, and many were warped and mutilated. When the Camarilla refused to even entertain the notion that the creature could have been an Antediluvian, Xaviar announced that the Gangrel were withdrawing from the Camarilla. Although most of the clan members have effectively withdrawn from the sect, they have retained most of the same havens and territory in and near Camarilla-dominated cities, and still fight against the Sabbat as it pushes into their territory. Thus, an uneasy peace exists between the clan and its former sect. Category:Clans Category:Gangrel